Apparatus for dampening, moistening, or humidifying fabrics and the like.



G. & RWEAY'. APPARATUS roa DAMPEVNING; MOISTENING,.0R HUMIDIFYING memosAND THE LIKE. APFUCATIDN FILED MAY 4, 1915- v 1 ,23,1 1 Patented July31, 1917.

4 SHEETS-SHEET I.

G. 61 A. WRAY.

APPARATUS FOR DAMPENING, MOISTENING, 0H HUMIDQFYING FABRICS AND THELIKE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY4.1915- 1,235,51 1 PatentedJuly 31, 1917.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

1 G. & A. WRAY. APPARATUS FOR DAMPENING, MOISTEFHNG, 0R HUMIDIFYIP-JGFABRICS AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATIGN FILED MAY 4, 3915' Patente 11137 31, 1917.

' SHEETS-SHEET 3 e. & A. WRAY. APPARATUS FOR DAMPEHlNG, MOISTENING, 0RHUMiDIFYING FABRICS AND THE LIKE. APPLICATION FILED MM 4 I915.

1,235,51 1, Patented July 31, 1917.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

8 1 WEI I NH; .1 III I I'M ih l ILLU LLI GEORGE WRAY AND ARTHUR WIt-AY,OF KEIGHLEY,- ENGLAND.

APPARATUS FOR DAMPENING, MOISTENING, OB, HUMIDIFYING FABRICS AND THELIKE.

Patented July a1, 1917.

Application filed May 4, 1915. Serial No. 25,821.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, Gnonon WRAY and ARTHUR lVnAY, subjects of the Kingof Great Britain, and residents of Alexandra Shed, Keighley, in thecounty of York, England, have invented a certain new and usefulImprovement in Apparatus for Dampening, Moistening, or HumidifyingFabrics and the like, of which the following description, havingreference to the accompanying sheets of drawings, is a specification.

In the finishing and treatment of fabrics for many and varied purposesit is often necessary that said fabrics should be moistened or made dampin order that the subsequent treatment to which said fabrics aresubjected may produce the desired effects thereon. Thismoistening orhumidifying of the fabrics must be effected on all the parts thereof toan equal extent otherwise the subsequent treatments do not produce thedesired results, and the devices heretofore employed for carrying outsaid operations or process have not been entirely reliable on account ofcertain parts being subjected to more moisture or water than are otherparts of the fabric passing through the apparatus. To produce mechanismor devices that will treat all parts or portions of the surface of thefabric equally'so that the damping or moistening of the whole of thefabric passing through the apparatus is carried out in every partthereof to the same extent and that by devices that may be regulated toincrease the humidity or decrease same according to what the fabricbeing treated may require, is the object of our present invention.

In the accompanying sheets of drawings, which are illustrative of ourinvention Figure 1 is a side elevation of a machine constructed inaccordance therewith.

Fig. 2 is a sectional side elevation thereof.

Fig. 3 is a back or rear elevation of said machine.

Fig. A is a drawing in detail showing the device for controlling theoperations of the several parts of the machine.

Fig. 5 is an end elevation of a sliding pinion and the means for movingit as hereinafter explained.

Fig. 6 is a front view thereof.

Fig. 7 is a similar view to Fig. 2 and shows a slight modification inthe arrangement of the fabric guiding roll and the spraying device.

notches n a a To attain the object of our invention we arrangeappropriately shaped framework A for supporting the several parts of ourapparatus. In bearings carried by said framework A we arrange a shaft aupon which is fixed a pulley (1,. Upon a certain part of this shaft a weform a key or spline a and taking loosely over said shaft a is a pinionI) provided with a key-way b which engages with said spline a. When inthe position indicated by Fig. 3 the shaft is capable of revolvingfreely without transmitting motion to the pinion b,- however as thepinion b is moved toward the pulley a by the means hereinafter describedit engages with the spline a and is capable then of transmitting motionto the gear wheels 0, d. The pinion b is broad enough to gear eitherwith the wheel (Z only or with both wheels 0 and (Z simultaneously, saidwheels 0, d

being placed out of alinement with eachother for the purpose hereinafterdescribed. To the wheel 0 is fixed another wheel 0 gearing with a wheel6 fixed upon the shaft 7 of the roller f. Upon the shaft f is fixed apulley F, a belt f taking thereover and around guide pulleys g, g and apulley h mounted upon the shaft h of the roller k at the opposite end ofthe machine to the roller 7; thus both the rollers f and k are rotatedfrom the gear wheel 0.

Upon the shaft (Z of the wheel (Z is mounted an eccentric 70 which bymeans of the rod 70 operates a piston within the pump chamber 70 thislatter being connected by the pipe 72 with the vessel or accumulator mwhich acts as a store for water under pressure. Leading from the vesselm is a pipe on having branches m m which extend over the top of theapparatus as shown by Figs. 1 and 2, and are provided with nozzles mwhich are so arranged as to give a very fine spray upon the fabric m asit passes from the roller 7' to the roller 7L2, such spray extendingacross the full width of the fabric.

In bearings on the framework A is arranged a shaft n upon which is fixeda lever n, this being for engagement with in an are shaped bracket afixed upon said framework A and within which the shaft a may freelyrotate or oscillate. Upon the shaft n is fixed a pinion 0 which gearswith a rack 0' sliding upon a fixed bracket 0 To the rack 0 is connectedwhich takes within a groove formed near a bifurcated piece or fork 0 pthe end of the pinion 5; hence as said pinion 0 is rotated thisbifurcated part 0 will move the pinion 7) so that it will engage withthe spline a and so transmit rotarymotion from the shaft a to the wheels0 and (Z and so to the rollers f and h and to the pump rod Also mountedon the sharft n is a cam 39 having a cam slot- 79 inwhich a pin pmounted at the end of the lever p engages said lever p being fulcrumedat 12* on a bracketp fixed to the framework of the machine. To the upperend of the lever p is connected a rack Q which slides freely in a grooveat the upper end of the bracket this rack q gears with ,pinions arrangedat the ends of the spindles of the valves 9 these latter being mountedin the branch pipes m m thus as the shaft is rotated to cause theoperations of the niachineto be commenced, the cam 7? causes movement tobe transmitted to the rack Q to open the valves by means of the pinionsg and so start the operations of the spraying noz- Zles m The pinions gmay be slidable upon their spindle so that one or another of them may bepassed or moved out of gear with the rack g; thus either one or twonozzles may be operated at any time, and the valves are preferablyarranged so that the noz- 'zles m give different strengths or quantitiesof spray upon the cloth (U. Stop valves Q3 are mounted in the pipes977?, m so that the spray may be arrested from either of the nozzles mwhenever desired, such as when the machine is in motion. The number ofpipes of, m and nozzles m may be varied as desired, although for mostpurposes wc find that two pipes are suflicient.

At the base of the machine we arrange a tank 7 fed by a pipe r andprovided with an ordinary ball valve ar angement r whereby the watercontained in said tank is kept at the desired height. The pipe 7" may befed from any suitable source such as the ordinary town swater main. Afeed pipe 70 leads from the part r of the tank 7 to the pump chamber 7;,a non-return valve being mountedat 1 a for purposes well known, anothernon-return valve is intervening between the pump chamber 762 and thevessel m. The tank 7 has a chamber 7' the wall 1 of which is formed ofporous material for the purpose of filtering the water passingtherethrough to the feed pipe 70 Beneath the cloth or fabric to we mounttrays s which conduct any moisture or liquid falling from said fabricback to the trough or receptacle 5:, whence it falls by the waste pipe 8into the tank r, this latter, if desired, being placed within anadditional tank 8 r The fabric is pla ed upon the support or iscray tand brought over the bars 1 and bars or rollers 2, around the rollers fand its, in manner above described, and then over the roller 5 carriedby lever arms 15' fulcruined upon the shaft i The lever arms 5 areoscillated from the shafth by means of the pinion 25* fixed upon theshaft 7L and gearing with a crank wheel a con-' necting rod 75transmitting motion therefrom to the lever arm 6 this arrangement beingold and well known for the purpose of folding, plaiting or cuttling thefabric or the like upon the support or scray 2f, beneath the roller 5. Aroller Z0 is mounted in bearings 10 and assists in supporting the fabrica as it passes from the roller 7' to the roller fi 7 By the wheels cand(Z being placed out of alinement with eachother the lever arm it" may bemoved from the notch 72* (which it occupies when the machine is out ofoperation) to the notch 72 which has the eifect of bringing the pinion 5into gear with the wheel (Z to pump water into the vessel or accumulatorm-until the desired pressure is attained. The handle a is then, movedinto the notch n by which movement the pinion 7) will then gear withboth the wheels 0 and Z so as to start the rollers f and h into motionto drag or carry the fabric :0 through the machine. During the lattermovement the cam groove p causes the valves Q2 to be opened (or one suchvalve to be opened), thus the fabric will then be traversed as desiredthrough the machine to receive a continuous spray of liquid, thepressure being kept up by the operations of the 100, pump 1:

An observation opening a (which may be covered by glass or othertransparent material or substances) is formed in the cover 3 in orderthat the operator may see that the apparatus is working properly, whilea l'iinged cover a is arranged at therear of the apparatus by raisingwhich access can be had to the roller We employ a pressure gage 5 and arelief valve 6 in connection with our improved apparatus.-

In Fig. 7 we have shown the roller f mounted in a more forward positionthan it occupies in the other sheets of drawings,

while the nozzles m are mounted at the rear of machine. These nozzlescan perform their functions upon the cloth a as it trav-' erses from theroller (4 to the roller h" as in the above cases, but should one orother of the nozzles m leak or liquid drop from the pipes of, m suchdrops cannot fall upon the cloth :0 as would be the case should suchleakages occur when the roller f and nozzles m are mounted in therelative positions illustrated by the other drawings. The roller f isrotated in the manner as is shown by Figs. 1 and 3.

If desired we may dispense with the valves 9, Q' and the means forautomatically operatmg them on the movement ofthe device for 139 puttingthe machine into motion and emplo only the valves 9.

S iloh being the nature and object of our invention What We claim is 1.In apparatus for damping, moistening or humidifying fabrics or the like,means for traversing said fabrics through said apparatus at a regularspeed, a liquid supply vessel, a connection therefrom to a pump, anaccumulator, a connection thereto from said pump, a spraying nozzle, aconnection thereto from said accumulator, a device for reciprocatingsaid pump, means for bringing into action said traversing mechanism,means for bringing into action said pump, and a connection between saidmeans for bringing said pump and said fabric traversing mechanism intoaction at different times, substantially as herein specified.

2. In apparatus for damping, moistening or humidifying fabrics or thelike, means for traversing said fabrics through said apparatus at aregular speed, a liquid supply, an accumulator for said liquid, a pumpintervening between said liquid supply and said accumulator, means forreciprocating said pump, nozzles mounted at the upper part of saidapparatus, pipes leading thereto from said accumulator, valves mountedin said pipes, a device for causing the pump to be brought intooperation, a device for bringing into action the fabric traversingmechanism, and a device for opening and closing said valves, all thesethree devices being regulated from one source, substantially as hereinspecified.

3. In apparatus fordamping, moistening or humidifying fabrics or thelike, means for traversing the fabric through the machine, sprayingnozzles, a pump for supplying liquid to said spraying nozzles, means fortransmitting motion to the fabric traversing devices, means for bringingthe pump into action and a device operated by a single handle forbringing the pump and fabric traversing mechanism into action atdifferent times.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specificction inthe presence of two Witnesses.

GEORGE WRAY. ARTHUR WRAY.

Witnesses:

JOHN WHITEHEAD, AUGus'rUs E. INGRAM.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

